- Who was the last Redskin QB to win a Super Bowl?
- Who was "Mark the Ripper"?
- Years later, when the Browns were in the playoffs and Joe Gibbs was analyst, what did Joe say in the second half? Right: "Put in Rypien. Show that graphic...playoffs appeared, playoffs won. You want to lean on a guy who has not won a playoff in four tries, or a guy who has won six and lost two playoff games...a Super Bowl winner and MVP. I trust Mark Rypien".

(Come to think of it, have the Redskins had a QB since Rypien who could hit the long pass as accurately? Certainly not Ramsey, Brunell, Campbell, or Grossman. Ah, Rypien-to-Clark!!)

In fact, too few saw Rypien...wow, twenty years since the all-time-great '91 season. When Ryp pulled himself out of the Falcons regular-season game rather than pass Sammy Baugh's all-time game record, because it was early in the second half, the Redskins were leading by about 40 points, and what did it matter?

Still, there is that YouTube we found last winter, "Did You Ever See Sonny Play?"

I saw Sonny play, but I was just a kid. In no way am I saying Ryp was a better QB than Sonny, just that in that '91 season, he had the greatest touch on the long ball of any QB I've ever seen play the game.

...and by 1970, Sonny had lost some of his long-ball power. Lost none of the quick release and accuracy, so he continued to slaughter defenses when his legs were OK. (Of course, it helped to have Taylor, Jefferson, and Smith as receivers from '71 onward.)

Sonny is considered by many to be the best pure passer in the history of the game, so there is no real comparison here.

Rip was surrounded by great talent at receiver and one of the best O-lines in history .... although he wasn't a superb athlete, and a bit clunky ... he dd have a fantastic long ball which he rarely missed an open guy, and had a high football IQ making him an excellent game manager.

He was also a heck of a nice guy to boot. I met him in the bar at San Fran Airport, where I was returning from a golf trip to Pebble Beach, and he was returning from a golf tournament elsewhere.

I got a little tanked due to the lengthy layover and when we landed at Dulles, he came over to us to make sure we were OK and if we needed a ride home! That really left a huge impression on me .... that he'd go out of his way like that. A real classy, nice fellow.

I grew up in the Sonny and Charlie Tayor era, and Mr. Taylor and other Redskins used to patronize my father's gas station in Seat Pleasant, MD, including buying Christmas trees at that time of year, and we frequently got some tickets to games that way.

My Mom tells a story about my father and 5 rather large Redskin players all stuffed into a VW Bug after a night out partying .... envision that image of several people crammed into a phone booth .....